


Impromptu Valentine gifts

by LemonWhiskey



Category: RWBY
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Gen, M/M, Meet-Cute, No actual Beta just some prereading, Nothing really happens its just a subtle start, aesops are here and they be chatting, no one kisses anyone but silver shamrock is a little mushy, pre established silver shamrock, qrow adjacent POV, qrow shows up and is shown affection, t for some swearing, winter is here too
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-15
Updated: 2021-02-15
Packaged: 2021-03-16 10:28:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,792
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29452317
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LemonWhiskey/pseuds/LemonWhiskey
Summary: "Hi, I'm Clover! What’s your name?"Qrow is a tired college student that wanted a place to sit down and instead got pulled into a new cluster of friends.
Relationships: Clover Ebi/James Ironwood, Qrow Branwen/Clover Ebi, Qrow Branwen/Clover Ebi/James Ironwood, Qrow Branwen/James Ironwood
Comments: 2
Kudos: 15





	Impromptu Valentine gifts

**Author's Note:**

> Hi everyone,  
> I was unsure about this Idea but I wanted to give it a little kick-off chapter to get the thought out there. Let me know if you like it in the comments and I might write more of this AU!

Qrow had been up for way too long trying to study what he could for his anatomy test and, at this point, he was not sure that 10 hours of studying would be enough. Honestly, he wasn’t sure that two cups of iced coffee was enough either. He gave a weary look at the empty cup in his hand and sighed before taking a left turn down the main campus building’s hall to get to the kiosk. 

“Afternoon, Qrow,” greeted the happy older woman from behind the counter. He rose an eyebrow while watching her begin to make something before he could even respond. 

“Hey Maria… it is afternoon isn’t it?” Did statistics really take him out of reality that much? At least he still had time before his next class. The woman rolled her eyes, vision replacement glasses showing the movement with clear intent. Gods that was so cool… Sometimes the things that his professor made for people reminded him of why he wanted to go into his major in the first place.    
  
“Yes, yes it is.” She snickered, shaking her head and setting down a medium iced coffee that was opaque light brown signaling it was at least half cream. She pressed a few buttons on the register and Qrow watched the total flicker onto the screen in front of him. “Made it with espresso shots and caramel too.” Maria stated calmly before he even had a chance to ask. Qrow smiled tiredly and took out his card. “Thank you,” he murmured, swiping to pay for the drink. 

“You looked like you were going to grovel for caffeine. Take one of the kiosk sandwiches on me and go hole up somewhere to relax for a while.” She said dismissively, gesturing to the cold case in the front of the display. Qrow took the peanut butter and jelly one that looked safe enough to consume as well as his drink. “Thanks, Mar, I’ll catch you ‘round.” he said quietly, nodding his head to the woman gratefully. “Have a nice day, tell Pietro I’ll see him tomorrow after your class.” Qrow snickered and nodded in agreement before wandering off down to the main floor of the building, following the sound of pleasant chatter to the student lounge. 

Ew.

He looked dejectedly at the ~fun~ decorations around the area. Sparkly tinseled red and pink hearts hung on the ceiling. 

  
Right, it was February … egh even worse. A glance at his phone confirmed it was  _ Valentines’ day _ . 

He just wanted to eat his sandwich and dissociate. He vaguely looked over the cluster of people currently occupying the small lounge, 8 or 9 different people and most of them talking to each other and exchanging things. Oh that was kind of sweet and they all seemed mostly ok… What’s the harm of a little background noise? He stayed slightly on the outside edge of the room before making his way over to the slightly small dark-haired guy who presided at one of the tables next to the main group’s couches with a computer. He can respect someone in a bright red turtleneck. Good for him. Blue-grey eyes looked up at him and the group’s talking decreased in volume but didn’t stop. 

Qrow just wanted to sit down. 

“Hi.. “ he started, “could I sit here for a little bit?” To his relief, the guy smiled at him and Qrow caught the slightest movement at his waist and flickered his eyes to catch a glance of a tail. Oh cool. “Totally dude, no worries!”

He gave him a grateful little nod and slid down into his seat, setting down his bag and guitar case on the floor next to him and tucking his knees up to his chest. Qrow opened the sandwich and tugged out his notebook with a small yawn. It felt like he was getting looked at but he wasn’t surprised. By the sounds of it, the group knew each other pretty well and he was a stranger. He would study after he ate. He sipped at his iced coffee and before he could even get a bite of his food the chair next to him was pulled out and Qrow ever so slightly tucked into himself. He looked over at the body occupying the once empty chair and went eye to eye with vibrant teal and the brightest smile he’s ever seen.

“Hi, I’m Clover!” The guy’s voice was smooth and nearly knocked Qrow back by how… pleasant he was? “What’s your name?”

He must not have responded fast enough because another man filled the seat adjacent to clover. This one had dark hair and a deep voice to match. He was chuckling at them. “Uh….” Qrow began.

“Clover, he looks like he’s considering murder, let him eat in peace.” 

Why were they both attractive? Why was the  _ rest  _ of the group moving over to fill the last two empty table chairs and a couple brought over their own. Damn it why are the couch seats movable-

Oh god  _ everyone  _ was attractive in this group, what the hell?

“He looks like a menace.” Ok the white-haired one was also incredibly snarky- wait. 

“Good to see you again too, my name is Qrow by the way.” He quipped, sipping his coffee, “didn’t notice you earlier, snow queen. Hows the business degree?”

She rolled her eyes at him, “I figured, you drink too much yesterday or something? It’s fine, thanks.” She looked at him with some scrutiny. Meanwhile, both Clover and the other larger man seemed to be silently discussing something with amused looks between each other and also towards Qrow for some reason. He vaguely noted the way the brunet happily rubbed his thumb into the other’s palm while they talked. That was sweet…

“What was it you do again?” She asked dryly, making him look at her again, “guitar education?”    
Qrow snickered, “No but that is the backup option.” he shrugged, “I do biomed.” Well that caught a little attention. Winter bristled a little. “What?”

“ Biomedical ...engineering?” he responded slowly,    
One of the women seemed very excited, “Oh! You take Dr. Polendina’s classes right? I’m doing HVAC and took one of his as an elective, it’s great but really intense, I’m Elm by the way.” she agreed. He nodded, relieved that it seems one person had a similar interest and was decent. Ok, that wasn’t fair, the very obvious gay and his boyfriend seem pretty good too. Just his luck that they’re taken by  _ each other.  _ Oh well, not like he’ll see them again after today. “Yeah, he’s my favorite instructor, nice to meet ya Elm.” 

A hand came into sight, gloved but slightly upturned, “I’m James, James Ironwood.” He blinked at the introduction and really hoped he didn’t look as red as he felt as he set his hand in the other’s and looked at the man who was slightly reaching over an unphased Clover, “Hi.” he mumbled back. More people pipped up.    
“I’m marrow!”

“Harriet.”

“My name is Vine.”

Oh, this was… a very strange occurrence for Qrow. 

No more walking up to random groups and asking to sit near them, this was way too much. At least Winter’s reaction to the new information was funny. 

“You… really do not look like the kind of person in your major,” Winter said slowly and Qrow snickered. 

“It does help to make sense that you looked like you wanted to throw a punch when we all came over,” James added in jokingly, pulling his hand from his own.

Qrow smirked a little and shrugged, “Oh I wouldn’t waste pretty faces like that…” He said to the other flickering between James and the very excitable brunet who seemed like he was patiently waiting to talk again. 

“Well…” Clover began, leaning towards him again with the cheekiest grin on his face, “since we know you’re not going to do something illegal-” 

“Don’t hold your breath, Clove.” Oh, that got a few of the group to laugh, including Clover.    
“Alright,  _ probably _ not going to do something illegal-” Qrow watched the other wink at him before extending a tiny heart-shaped box that was about the size of his palm. “-why don’t you take this? You seem like a cool enough guy to deserve a little valentine.” oh no his face was definitely red now as he let the other set it into his hand. 

“Oh- ok, thanks?” 

Qrow watched as Marrow perked up as well, moving to slid over a heart lollipop to him,

“Yeah, he’s right, you’re pretty nice!” Ok so the youngest group member was sweet to do that but it seems Clover and marrow sparked a little trend as the group began to chatter happily towards Qrow and leaning to pass over each one of their own little Valentines. Qrow was as antisocial as they came and barely kept up with it but at least it all seemed relatively positive. Elm even put one of those little squishy heart stickers on the corner of his notebook. A good distraction for class. He did notice that James was the last to set something on the little stack, a candy rose that had a little heart card on it.

“Thanks uh- where did you all get these from even? Did I miss a campus event? Damn if Stats made me miss free pizza…” He asked with a decent level of distracted confusion and slight disappointment. 

“Nah, we do this with most holidays.” Marrow explained and that did click for him. “It’s a group thing!”

Qrow smiled a small bit, “Ah that’s nice, I got a trio that comes around sometimes and we usually just save gift-giving for December and Birthdays.” 

“Why don’t you bring them here sometimes?” He looked over at the calmly smiling face of James and Qrow shrugged sheepishly.    
“Oh, yeah!” Clover added in, “a couple of us are always up here but we usually end up together around this time and 5 ish.” he estimated, “it’s fun to unwind together and play some board games or cards.”

“Tch yeah when you don’t win all of them,” Harriet interjected with a hardy eye roll. “Cheater.”

Clover looked offended, “I am not a cheater, we’ve been over this. I just have good luck with chance games.” 

“I’ll believe that when you consistently end up losing poker.” She huffed.   
“James does win against him in chess often,” Vine added to the conversation and Winter snickered.

“Yes, I wonder why Clover would lose to his boyfriend,” She noted airily to watch Clover purposely act dramatic.   
“Hey, I don’t like those implications-”

Qrow sat back in his seat with a slight amusement to his face as the group’s conversation (and subsequently also their attention) spiraled off of him and into giving Clover shit for being suspiciously good at games until he’s facing off against his partner. Qrow couldn’t blame him if the other was guilty. Shit if he had a boyfriend that looked like that he’d willingly lose too. He took out his sandwich and quietly ate it while witnessing the conversation taking a sharp turn into chess strategy for some ungodly reason. The sound of people just hanging out was nice, even if a bit odd. He didn’t notice someone sliding a chair up to his open left side until the large body was calmly leaning forward on his knees, “they will be discussing this for a while.” the smooth deep voice noted casually and Qrow looked over at him, “when did you get there?” Oh, James thought that was funny, snickering at him. 

“Don’t worry, I just sat down” He explained and he let out a relieved sigh. 

“Oh ok, yeah. Do off-topic tangents happen often?”

“Quite actually.” 

“Oh thank gods so it won't be weird if I end up doing that.” Qrow chuckled awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck and James gave him a little smile of assurance, reaching to pat his shoulder. It didn’t go unnoticed that James hesitated to watch his physical response before actually doing it.

“You’ll come to find out that this group really isn’t all that normal anyway.” James explained calmly, “But it makes it all that much better.”

Jeez, this guy should read audiobooks for a living. “Oh, thanks, Jim.” he responded, “big groups aren’t my thing.” 

“Don’t worry, they aren’t mine either. Clover has all the social er- prowess that we need.” Qrow huffed out a small laugh. 

“That's sweet.” He noted back. “Caught yourself an extrovert?”

“More like he caught me.” he murmured, “don't let him hear you or he will make fisherman puns.”

Qrow looked over at the said man who was debating chess opener moves with Vine and Winter. He rose an eyebrow and smirked, “He makes puns? My condolences.” 

James gave him an amused look, “I’ve mostly come to peace over it but thank you, do you have an... extrovert too?”

Qrow sighed and shook his head, “nope, the closest I have is my brother and sister-in-laws which is fine but fourth wheeling bites sometimes.”

James gave him an intrigued look, “fourth wheeling?” He asked. There was a high chance that people were going to be fine with it and Qrow found that he wanted to keep talking to the other guy.    
“My sister is uh, technically married to two people. Not sure how that happened because whew she is a character but they're cool people so I’m not complaining.” He shrugged and sipped his coffee. 

“Oh I see, are they the trio you mentioned earlier?” 

Qrow can appreciate the fact that this guy was definitely a listener type. He nodded, “Yeah, We’ve been a group since high school.” That got James to smile warmly at him. Cool. That's fine he didn't need to breathe anyway, fucks sake.

“Me, Clover, Elm, and Harriet were all highschool friends, the other three joined in last year.” James explained, “It's not a common thing to keep friends after graduation but I’m relieved we did.” 

“Less of a need to have to talk to new people eh?” Qrow reasoned with humor. 

James nodded with a chuckle but eyed him slightly with a twinkle to his eyes, “indeed but some new people are  _ very _ fun to talk to.” 

For his own sanity, Qrow was going to assume that was a completely innocent comment. “I guess you’re right.” he agreed flusteredly, glancing down at his phone notification and felt his back go a little stiff. “Shit.”

“Everything alright?”

“I have to go halfway across campus for an exam and it's  _ raining _ .” He rubbed his eyes, “damn it.” 

“That's too bad for you,” the sharp voice of Winter interjected, “I hope you like being wet.”

Qrow shot her a glare, “actually I don’t but thank you for the vote of confidence.” He sighed and stood up with a stretch, moving to grab his stuff when a very nice, forest green raincoat was held in front of him.

“Here, just bring it back after your class,” Clover said brightly and Qrow hesitated with a confused look.

“I don’t want to like- hold you back from going home,” he said, “I cant.”

Clover shrugged, keeping it held out. “Like I mentioned, we are here till pretty late anyway and if we do have to leave before you’re done then you can always come back tomorrow?” he suggested and Qrow slowly took the coat into his hand. Yeah, this was odd but he was not a good litmus test to what was normal people behavior. He moved to pull the coat around onto himself, going easily over his purposely distressed baggy sweater. Lengthwise it was ok but it was definitely a couple sizes too big on him. 

“Thanks, Clover.” Qrow mumbled sheepishly, moving to put his notes and the little gifts safely away into his bag and put it on his back before grabbing the rest of his things before throwing away what was left of his sandwich. “I’ll see you guys soon then?” he looked at them to give them all a mock salute and a few of them waved, all generally saying fun little goodbyes to him before he turned away to stride down the hallway. 

He looked down as he did at the waterproof fabric covering his body with a bright blush adorning his face, glad that he was alone again. He was glad that he had a reason to come back but oh they were so friendly... he was going to die. Qrow bit on his lip as he got to the door and pushed it open, taking off through the downpour to get to the next building that would connect to where he needed to go. Today wasn't a good day for eyeliner.

At least he made some friends?


End file.
